First time a charm in shootout for Raiders’ Kosior

Prince Albert rallies for victory over Hitmen

Landon Kosior reacts to scoring in a tiebreaking shootout.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. - Landon Kosior capped a Prince Albert Raiders comeback victory cashing in on a personal WHL first.

On Saturday night at the Art Hauser Centre, Kosior’s Raiders entered the third period training the visiting Calgary Hitmen 3-2. The Raiders tied the game 3-3 in the third to send the contest to overtime.

After a scoreless three-versus-three overtime period, the game went to a tiebreaking shootout where the Raiders were shooting first. The Raiders held a 1-0 edge in the tiebreaking session after two rounds after star 19-year-old centre Ozzy Wiesblatt score on the team’s second shot attempt.

Kosior was picked to shoot for the Raiders in the third round. The 19-year-old defenceman, who is in his third WHL season, would be taking his first career attempt in the shootout.

Landon Kosior had a big blocked shot for the Raiders.

The Regina, Sask., product snapped home a shot glove side on Hitmen netminder Ethan Buenaventura to clinch a 2-0 win in the tiebreaking session and give the Raiders a 4-3 outright victory in the WHL regular season contest to the delight of the 2,115 spectators in attendance.

“I was excited,” said Kosior, who team was picked up a win for the first time this season when trailing after two periods. “Any time you can be relied on like that by your coach, it is always exciting.

“I think I just made the most out of it and took it as a boost of confidence and made a good shot.”

Kosior was pumped his shootout goal clinched the win for his squad.

“It was nice to get that,” said Kosior, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 189 pounds. “I saw Ozzy (Wiesblatt) kind of do the same thing (with the snap shot glove side).

The scene after Landon Kosior scores his shootout clincher.

“I went out there with the mindset that if it was open I would take that.”

Besides scoring the shootout clincher, Kosior was in on a couple of other big plays for the Raiders.

On the Raiders tally that tied the contest 3-3 with 8:16 to play in the third period, Kosior picked up a second assist on that play. He made a backhand pass to his defensive partner on that shift in Remy Aquilon on the right point.

Aquilon put a shot on goal that was tipped home by left-winger Keaton Sorensen for the equalizer.

Tikhon Chaika stops a shot in the tiebreaking shootout.

Right before the buzzer that ended the three-versus-three overtime session, Kosior blocked a shot from Hitmen rearguard Keegan Slaney to preserve the 3-3 tie and cause the contest to move to the shootout.

“I just saw the puck come out in front,” said Kosior, who has four goals and 11 assists appearing in all 25 of his team’s games this season. “I just saw a guy all alone.

“I knew on the clock there wasn’t much time left, so I just gave it everything I could to block it.”

Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said Kosior has taken his game up to another level, and the bench boss was pleased to see the veteran defenceman come up with big plays in big moments.

Cale Sanders celebrates scoring the Raiders first goal on Saturday.

“He (Kosior) has been good,” said Habscheid. “There was a time all of a sudden the light switch went on for him.

“He laughs about it. He agrees. He is a really talented player not only for our team but in the league.

“He is a good two-way player. He is smart. He makes good passes, and his defensive game has come up quite a bit. He is a really important guy.”

The Raiders got out to a good start in Saturday’s game. At the 4:16 mark of the opening frame, Raiders right-winger Cale Sanders wired home a shot to the top right corner of the Calgary goal on a rush up the right wing to give the Raiders a 1-0 lead.

The clean up after the Raiders toque and mittens toss goal.

As Saturday’s contest was the Raiders toque and mittens toss night, the spectators rained down toques and mittens to the ice along with teddy bears and other stuffed animals. The Raiders weren’t selling teddy bears at Saturday’s game, but fans were allowed to bring teddy bears and stuffed animals to the contest to throw on the ice.

All the items collected will go to Prince Albert area charities.

“Honestly, I forgot about it,” said Sanders about what was to happen when the Raiders scored their first goal on Saturday. “When I scored, I was like, ‘Oh. I guess I scored it.’”

A short time later, Hitmen centre Riley Fiddler-Schultz netted his 13^th goal of the season to even the score at 1-1.

Raiders captain Reece Vitelli potted his ninth of the season just under three minutes later to give the hosts a 2-1 edge heading into the first intermission.

Keegan Slaney (#7) scored for the Hitmen on Saturday.

In the second, the Hitmen got singles from centre Oliver Tulk and Slaney to take a 3-2 advantage into the second intermission.

That set the stage for the Raiders comeback the rest of the way.

“We know that we didn’t have our best game out there, but we did crawl back in the third,” said Sanders. “We had a great third and out battled them.

“We had to get a goal and we did. We came through in the third, and that is all that matters.”

Tikhon Chaika stopped 28 shots over 65 minutes and both shooters he faced in the shootout to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders (10-13-1-1). Buenaventura turned away 22 shots over 65 minutes and stopped one of three shooters in the shootout to take the extra time setback in net for the Hitmen (11-9-2-2).

The Raiders celebrate their victory on Saturday night.

With Hitmen having downed the Blades in Saskatoon 4-2 on Friday night to enter Saturday’s game with some good momentum, Habscheid was pleased his Raiders found a way to pull out the comeback victory.

“When you are not above .500, any victory is good,” said Habscheid. “The comeback is nice.

“Calgary has been playing well. They’ve score a lot of goals, and they beat Saskatoon last night. We knew they were coming in really confident, and they are a good team.”

The Raiders return to action on Tuesday when they host the Winnipeg Ice (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre).

The Hitmen return to Calgary and get back at it on Wednesday on home ice when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings (7 p.m. local time, Scotiabank Saddledome).

Habscheid gets friendly one up on Stajan

Marc Habscheid points out directions during a stoppage.

Prince Albert Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid was happy to get the friendly upper hand on one of his former world junior players.

On Saturday, the Raiders downed the visiting Calgary Hitmen 4-3 after a tiebreaking shootout at the Art Hauser Centre. One of the Hitmen’s assistant coaches is Matt Stajan, who joined the staff of Calgary’s WHL franchise before the start of the current campaign.

When Habscheid coached Canada’s entry at world juniors that were held jointly between Halifax and Sydney, N.S., in the 2002-03 season, Stajan was one of forwards on the Canadian side.

Saturday’s game was the first meeting of the current campaign between the Raiders and Hitmen.

It was also the Raiders toque and mittens toss game, and the fans could throw teddy bears or other stuffed animals on the ice after the Raiders first goal. All the items collected will go to Prince Albert area charities.

Raiders right-winger Cale Sanders netted the toque and mittens toss goal at the 4:16 mark of the first period.

That allowed Habscheid and Stajan to have a visit.

Marc Habscheid, centre, works the Raiders bench on Saturday.

“Just a little sidebar here, but it was fun for me, because Matt Stajan was on the other team,” said Habscheid. “I talked to him at the teddy bear break.

“He was my last choice at the world juniors in Halifax, and now he is on the bench across from me. It tells me two things. One, that world juniors Matt said was about 20 years ago, and two, I’m old I guess.”

Canada won silver at that world juniors in the 2002-03 campaign.

Following that world juniors, Stajan would go on to play 1,003 regular season games in the NHL spread over 15 seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames collecting 146 goals and 267 assists. He last suited up in the NHL for the Flames in the 2017-18 campaign.

Habscheid was happy to see Stajan decided to get into coaching after his playing days wrapped up.

“It was good to see him,” said Habscheid. “It just goes to prove how precious every day is and how fast time flies.

“Matt is a heck of a guy, and it is good to see that he is in coaching, because he’ll make a good coach.”

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